Stock Photography – a look ahead
Someday there will be one e-bay "of the photograph where consumers and businesses, designers and art directors, agencies and photo buyers are all going to find and license the image for their differing needs. A student will find images to complete a task … and Art Director for a major ad agency is an image for a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal. The student can pay twenty-five cents, while art director might pay $ 10,000.00. The popularity of an image, in connection with use, determine the price to be paid. The best photographers make more money than ever before … and photographers who are sound business people will find a way to make good money too. Those of us who are less creative, less motivated and less diligent fall further and further behind. I guess that's one thing that will really change in the business of photography Stock, Those who "do" flourishing … as they have always done, while those who remain stuck in the past slowly (or quickly) fade.
As professional photographers who sell their images for advertising, design and editorial communities, many of us have out of sight, or perhaps never have seen the tremendous buying power of consumers "." My eyes were opened when I started selling my animals pictures Antics … pictures of cute animals in anthropomorphic poses and situations, such as greeting cards. Sure, I can only make a few cents per card … but when the public is buying more than one hundred thousand cards a month can really add up coins!
Even with sales like the most people I talk to my greeting cards have never seen cards for sale! So the conclusion that the sales of one hundred thousand cards a month is only a small fraction of the total possible number of sales. The potential income from the sale of images to the public, for the consumer, it's amazing. Especially considering the images, for the most part, are a universal language.
So how do we, photographers, tap into that market? Well, obviously, greeting cards depicting images of animals is a fun way to do that. But that really is not very efficient to do so. The Internet is how to do it … but perhaps not yet. That aforementioned "e-Bay" for the photos … or some similar mechanism to marry the elements of consumers, photographs and transactions, must come into place. The need is there … I bet that technology is too … the rest is simply a matter time … and preparation.
To me that means having a web site is reasonably functional in getting my pictures in front of the public … and content having the public wants. The content can be anything from pictures that consumers can download and print (and you want to download and print), images they can license for your small business or images that can be used to spice up your social networking site. I'm trying to offer these content to consumers by linking with Cafe Press to products such as mugs, calendars, bags, shirts, etc … Imagekind for prints for artwork, photo agencies to various actions that photographs of my license to traditional advertising and promotional purposes. Currently I use the ethnic mix and lifestyle of conceptual images, Getty Images for most of my business and conceptual images, Corbis concept include images, and Kimball Stock for the approval of my photos of zoo animals. We also continue to sell greeting cards through branded portal that is published and distributed by Marian Heath Greeting card company.
Any investment advisor will tell you that the first thing to do in the investment is diversification. That is particularly important in times of uncertainty … and I think these times qualify for that label. As photographers we need to continue the same advice. How to diversify? To me that means that a multifaceted approach. I diversify my content in my target market, and in my distribution.
I create images for traditional advertising, design, editorial and corporate markets. Among the markets that create lifestyle images, images business, and conceptual images. Here I am more diverse in the category of traditional stock photography. Then, create images Consumer … which is that images in themselves "are or may be product. That means that everything from coffee mugs printed photo to photos of the controls, Photos of screensavers … you get the picture. Also, once a year, a trip specifically to shoot images of travel. Again … greater diversification My content.
To diversify the distribution of my using both traditional "core" values photo agencies like Getty and Corbis, and specialized agencies as Blend Images (by ethnically diverse lifestyle and business imagery) and Kimball Stock (for funny photos of animals). More diversification of my distribution is achieved by selling greeting cards through Marian Heath Greeting Cards and recruitment an agent licensed to sell and distribute other "consumer" images for wide range of applications such as reminder cards FP, gift books and even figurines and photo frames!
And finally, I have my website that I set as a vehicle to make my photos available of anyone who might be interested in them, and the guidance to distributors suited to their needs. I think that those of us who create websites, now and learn of that process, will have a huge head start when the new paradigm of land us … as it surely will! When the wave hits I want to be experiencing thrill of riding it instead of the pain of being crushed beneath it.
About the Author
Visit John’s new website for incredible funny pictures, fine art prints, and great stock photos Stock Photography Online Creative conceptual stock photos.
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